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Nap time in
Seattle
by David Trumbell
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When the Seattle WTO meeting
faltered earlier this month it
was significant that the talks
were not "canceled;"
the meeting did not
"adjourn;" and the
delegates did not
"prorogue." Faced with
rioters in the streets and
delegates who could not agreed
even on the agenda, meeting
Chairman Charlene Barshefsky
called for a"timeout"
for the participants to
"find a creative means to
finish this job." Like
rambunctious pre-schoolers, the
ministers will have to go lie
down on their mats until they
learn to play better with the
other children.
For fifty years now the only
intellectually respectable
position in adult America has
been pro free trade and pro
globalism. Democrats and
Republicans are agreed on--and
majorities voted for--trade
liberalization. Occasionally a
few Senators or Congressmen
oppose a NAFTA or a WTO agreement
but never so many as to actually
threaten to defeat the
legislation.
Rational disinterested dissent
from the internationalist
position is, for a large majority
America's leadership class,
simply unthinkable. A tendency
toward protectionism is explained
as self serving: "well of
course liberal Democrat X
supports high tariffs on
manufactured goods, he gets his
money from labor unions, but
is not as if he actually believes
this economic nonsense."
Meanwhile an appeal to economic
nationalism that calls on America
to avoid entangling foreign
alliances, is dismissed as an
aberration, perhaps a sign of
intellectual immaturity, and as
further evidence that
conservative Republicans indeed
are "the stupid party."
Ah, they are so child-like, these
economic nationalists and trade
union protectionists. And so have
they been treated by elected
officials and editorial writers
in the best publications.
Conservatives won the battle;
abandoned the war.
Free trade among the nations
does, indeed, benefit everyone. A
large and steady supply of
inexpensive imported manufactured
goods allow even Americans of
modest means to enjoy luxuries
that, a mere couple of decades
ago, would have seemed
unreachable. And poor people in
lesser-developed countries are
much less poor than they would be
if it weren't for jobs created by
lowing trade barriers. Trade
liberalism, once considered a
wildly libertarian and downright
dangerous idea, is now so
mainstream that only marginal
characters--Pat Buchanan, Ross
Perot--attempt a counter
argument.
So what went wrong in Seattle?
Well, the self-evident
superiority of the free trade
position is, it seems, not at all
self-evident to blue collar
workers with a declining standard
of living. In a democracy it is
not enough to get the politicians
and the professorship of the
elite universities on your side,
you must persuade voters.
Advocates of trade liberalization
have failed to explain to
ordinary working people why free
trade is a good deal for them.
Worse, they have ignored the
cries of people being harmed by
our trade policies, treating them
like children not to be heard.
Back in October I spent some time
with Pat Choate, Ross Perot's
1996 runningmate. Both in private
conversations and publicly to a
group of manufacturing industry
leaders, Pat held forth on the
"Ruckus" that he and
other WTO opponents planned to
raise in Seattle. Indeed,
anti-WTO protests were planned,
and publicized, well in advance
of the Seattle meeting. Yet,
somehow, President Clinton, the
WTO members, and the Seattle
police chief were blissfully
unaware that trouble was brewing.
The globalists were not prepared.
The result was failure of the
Seattle meeting, a blow to the
prestige of the WTO and of the
U.S., and a setback for the cause
of free trade. The perceived
success of the protesters in
closing down the meeting will
embolden them in opposition to
permanent Normal Trade Relations
for China, which will be debated
in Congress this coming summer.
Any free trader who still thinks
he can high-handedly advance the
global agenda without seriously
listening and responding to the
arguments of the other side ought
to be sent to bed without his
supper.
David Trumbull is Chairman of
the Cambridge Republican City
Committee.
His web site is:
http://members.aol.com/cambgop. He can be
reached at
cambgop@aol.com
© 1999,
David Trumbell, All rights
reserved.
posted on 12/27/99
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